Eiko knew what Shiina was coming back for when she saw Shiina approaching her, she sighed and said to herself before Shiina explained her ordeal." You give mouse a cookie." Eiko sighed once again." No this will be quicker." Eiko told her before un-buttoning her coat slightly and showed her left bare pale shoulder Shiina her bare shoulder she got herself ready for the worse." Just drink as much as you need. I don't want to pass out or die from blood loss." Some part of Eiko felt like she was gonna regret doing this and she felt like this will hurt like a mother fucker.

-------------------------------

When Shiina told Jun who was her savior, the oni crouched down to Yamato and put a hand on his chest." I hope where ever you are, it's where you want to be. It's a shame to see such a young life snuffed out in it's prime." Jun told his body, she gave him a gentle kiss on the cheek, some part of her felt a little sad that someone actually died for her, not many died for her while she was alive, but this death felt like it was gonna leave a scar on her, even though she didn't know who this boy was, she felt like it would hurt not knowing him.

Zane arrived at Hernia's mansion from the rift with Eos in tow. He closed the rift behind him and started making his way through the maze-like halls searching for the right room. Along the way, he turned a corner and stopped suddenly. in front of him was some sort of bizarre creature, or maybe creatures. He peered at the strange thing in total confusion. He stood there silently for a minute or two, not sure if he wanted to laugh at it, attack it, talk to it or ignore it.

"Hmmm..." He said, inspecting a vase in the hallway. "This looks expensive."

After exploring some of the mansion he'd found himself in and as he'd found out, besides its abnormal size it was relatively normal, which was a little disappointing. But he wasn't going to let that get him down, there was the rest of the mansion to explore. Suddenly, he heard footsteps ahead of him. He whipped around and saw a person with strange eyes staring at him.

"Oh! You must be..." He was about to say he was the owner of the mansion but he kind of didn't look like it. The mansion had an overall gothic theme and this guy kind of looked like an evil-overlord type. "Actually who are you?"

Then he noticed that there was another person leaning on his shoulder. She seemed to have somewhat similar clothes except she was wearing a dress. She was rather pretty in actual fact and her dress did sort of look like a wedding dress...

"Ummm... Am I disturbing something here?" He asked tentatively.

A strange thing stood in the brush outside of Hernia's estate, low to the ground watching the weird monster outside of her home. It's eyes glowed blue and it moved with a blue flash, moving from place to place it almost teleporting it seemed. It moved around with a blue after image behind it, until it jumped into the air and vanished. Suddenly reappearing between Zane and the thing, Chihiro, or rather the new Chihiro appeared growling and lowering itself. He spoke to Zane and Eos "Hello again Mistress Eos, I am to assume that you are Master Zane, the new member that we were suppose to get. May I ask if you brought this one here with you?" he wasn't sure if Zane knew who he was, but all that mattered at the moment was that there was an intruder in Lady Hernia's home, and he wasn't about to lose this either.

---

After that, it started to rain and Ikkime let go "Well enough of that, lets go back inside and you can apologize to everyone..." she turned and Mizura put his hand on the back of his neck.

"Oh joy..." they went downstairs and back into the room, just as Eiko was offering herself up to Shiina.

Ikkime busted out laughing "Damn boss, I didn't know you were into girls" she made a joke and wiped her eyes from both the old tears and the new ones replaced by the scene. "I suggest you find a room for the two of you, it's a tad bit...well revealing and we also have a new one here, wouldn't want to scare her" she winked at Jun and looked around for Lucille, looking back at Mizura "I'm gunna go find out where that blasted girl ran off too, now, go" Mizura rolled his eyes. As he begun apologizing, Ikkime left the room and ventured through the shop and found Lucille in the rain. Ikkime thought for a moment, before quietly opening the door and standing out in the rain behind Lucille. Wrapping her arms around the little girl, she put her chin on the top of her head and closed her eyes "thanks..." she just felt like hugging the girl for the moment, it was...nice. It was different from what had happened the past two days and it was nice to feel the warmth of another person.

Shiina gave Ikkime a half-glare before the fox Youkai departed outside to meet with Lucille. She was one to talk; the vampire began noting how the other maid acted around the girl with the parasol. But she was right in saying that the feeding was perhaps best conducted in private.

"Mistress Eiko, please, let us go somewhere less disruptive. I believe Akane has some spare rooms upstairs and this will only take a minute," the vampire offered.

Eiko just watched as Shiina glanced towards Ikkime and moved her coat back over her shoulder, once Shiina was ready she said that it would be better if they..,Conducted the blood drinking behind closed doors and away from prying eyes," Alright, just lead the way upstairs, I'll be right behind you." Eiko informed the vampire, ninja, maid.

Shiina nodded and moved to guide them both upstairs. As she ascended higher into the building, she could hear the pitter of rain falling down and stifled sigh. It seemed even the weather could tell the sullen mood they were all in. Once they found one of Chikage's spare bedrooms-to which she could only guess its usage-Shiina motioned for Eiko to take a seat at the bed's edge.

"Being fed upon by a vampire can usually render a human weak and possibly unconscious. It's best if we do it here if you pass out in the middle of the feeding," she informed Eiko.

Eiko followed the vampire up the stairs, she both heard and smelled the rain outside, followed with a strong smell of the pavement, as they both entered the room, Eiko's nose was barraged with the foul stench of what a Yokai does in their spare time, either alone or with another Yokai.

Eiko sat on the bed and bet that a U.V light would tell stories in of this room, Shiina told Eiko would could happen after she fed off of her, Eiko began to have second thoughts about it and suddenly she was hit with a big thought." Would you feeding off me make me a vampire ?" She asked wondering what could happen before she would take off her jacket.

"Not unless I willed it. Or you were on death's bed," Shiina remarked casually. "There's alot of misconceptions about vampires these days. But no, you won't turn into one so you can rest assured."

Shiina made sure to spend as less time in this room as needed. As a vampire, her senses were much greater than Eiko's. And the smells that lay in this room were...more than a little unpleasant. Not that she judged Chikage's lifestyle or anything...

"Are you ready?" she asked, getting back to point while sitting next to Eiko. "It'll hurt briefly but then you'll become numb to it. A vampire's fangs releases certain additives into the bloodstream to held calm and pacify the victim or prey."

" Like a spider then." Eiko tried to comepare the vampire to an insect. she slowly undone her coat's buttons and revealed her pale skin, and pale left shoulder, her torso had several scars and her left hand arm had some as well, but her left shoulder was un-touched by any of the scars like the rest of her body, it was almost as if Shiina was getting lucky getting a chance to willing scar up a part of Eiko that was un-touched by most others.

Eiko turned to Shiina almost seeming different than she was before entering, she had a hint of blush on her cheeks and nose on her pale skin," I-I'm ready." She sounded kinda bashful or almost afraid awaiting Shiina to bite her.

Shiina noticed the blush before smiling warmly and saying, "It's alright. Compared to when I was just starting out, I'm a professional at this point." The vampire leaned ever closer, eyes shifting blood red as they searched and studied for a fresh vein to penetrate. The top of the shoulder was probably the best option and she was sure it wouldn't cause too much blood loss.

Moving now until she was directly over Eiko's flesh, the maid opened her mouth to reveal sharp fangs. A small breath was exhaled onto the skin to tenderize it slightly before Shiina gently sunk her fangs into Eiko's shoulder. A sharp pain would overtake the girl at first and the vampire made sure to hold on and restrain Eiko if she struggled too much. Moving around excessively during a feeding would only cause pain on the recipent's part and so Shiina waited for Eiko's panic to decrease before next proceeding.

The warm breath on her shoulder made Eiko almost shutter, she held herself together and stood still as Shiina sunk her teeth into her shoulder, Eiko let out a moan as Shiina held onto her, the seemingly stoic woman's mouth was agape as she felt Shiina's fangs in her blood, her face went completely red as she Shiina started to drink her blood.

But unlike the others Shiina has drunk from, Eiko put a hand on the back of her head, the whole situation of her being stabbed with Shiina's teeth wasn't too bad towards her."D-don't g-go crazy and d-drink all of my blood and kill me." Eiko told her before letting out a small moan.

Hearing that encouraged Shiina to drink a little slower now as the toxins within her fangs began to kick in, entering into Eiko's bloodstream. The pain would be dulled now as a rush of warmth would overtake the one being fed upon. Shiina drank until she felt Eiko was at her limit before carefully removing her fangs away from the penetrated flesh and moving back. Two puncture marks were seen with barely a drop spilt. Compared to most vampires, Shiina Gamai was not a messy eater.

"Are you feeling alright young Mistress?"

Eiko was out of breath, she fell back onto the bed panting as if she just ran till her lungs collapsed, beads of sweat escaped the pores on her forehead as she tried to catch her breath, she still could smell the horrible stench of the room's...Fluids, she slowly pushed herself up from the bed and gave Shiina a glare as she began catching her breath.

When she felt like she could talk the first thing she said shockingly wasn't to berate Shiina." I told you not to call me misstress." She then tried to re-button her coat to cover up her bare arm, but she felt a little weaker than normal." If you need any more...I'll be here. I'll be fine." She told the vampire maid.

"If you insist. Apologies young Mistress. It's only a habit of mine," Shiina answered with a sly grin. Yes, it was evident that she was feeling that much better. But as the moment came and passed, the reality of their current situation came into view and the vampire frowned.

To think that Mina Harker was still alive in the world and the one truly behind everything up to this point...it was unthinkable. With more than half of their team dead, regrouping seemed like their only plausible option to this point. Shiina placed a hand to her chin in thought.

Eiko groaned as she stood up wobbly, she felt the two little bites on her shoulder with her robotic arm, even though the feeling in her left arm was numb she sighed as Shiina called her mistress again after she said don't call her it, she noticed the cat like grin on her face, with an ear to ear smile.

"Are you sure you're feeling okay?" Shiina asked, her tone neutral once again. The unsettling feeling she got from thinking about Mina came back in full force. But at least her body was healing slowly, thanks to Eiko's provided blood.

" Yes, I'm fine, I've been through worse things before hand, I've fought light headed before without many problems." Eiko explained to the vampire ninja." Do you need to drink more from me or are you fine with how much you've taken from me ? " Eiko asked as she fixed her clothes, she rubbed her face with her left hand and took a deep breath, she was okay now after getting a second wind.

"No, I'm fine," Shiina a little absentmindly. "You should probably go now. We don't need the others to spread rumors about us. I'll meet you in a little bit."

The vampire turned away, fully expecting Eiko to leave as she stared off into the darkened window. The rain made her eyes narrow at their next possible move from her on out.

" Why worry about what the others think ? Let them believe what they want to believe I wouldn't care about what they thought, and with what's going on now I doubt that they will focus on this only their minds are on other things at the moment." Eiko tried to ease Shiina's mind.

She then noticed the vampire was staring out of the window." Something the matter ? You have some heavy thoughts on your mind as well ? " Eiko asked the vampire, she could tell by the look on the vampire's face, it was same look Eiko had before, she felt like something serious was about to happen and someone was gonna get hurt.

Shiina slowly turned back to Eiko and mentally cursed herself for how easily readable she was. She wasn't usually like this but it seemed that fate itself was against the Chasers now.

"I...was just thinking about Yamato. It's never easy to lose member of the team. You may not realize it young Mistress, but I'm one of the original and oldest Chasers here. As you can imagine, I've seen more than my share of death. It never gets easy. And with Eos being turned with Rikka kidnapped...and the return of her....heh, I guess you could say I'm just a tad bit depressed."

The vampire flashed a bitter smile, her eyes slowly drifting back to their ice blue coloration. Those eyes had seen many battles and much loss in their time.

Eiko listened to the vampire speak about how she felt about Yamato's death, Eiko remember the old days when she was only a child fighting against men bigger than her, she watched kids she played with be blown to pieces and be nothing but a stain on her clothes, and watched many others die as well.

"Like my father would alway say, " I won't say I've felt the same pain your feeling, but I've felt something close to it." I've watched children go into fire fights and come out as nothing but blood stains and organs, the same kids I played with and helped use their guns, but it still didn't help." Eiko told the Vampire.

She sighed."So I may have not been an immortal and lived for almost one hundred years and seen years of pain and suffering, but I've seen a share of pain in the world, and you'll get Eos and Rikka back." Eiko then unexpectedly ambushed the vampire with a hug." And like I said before, stop calling me Mistress."

Shiina stiffened up, not expecting the hug. But she didn't fight against it, instead finding herself leaning into the other girl's warmth. She was never one for romantics but it was always nice to have a friend to rely on.

"Alright. I hope you're right...Eiko." the vampire said with a smile.

"...what do you want?"

Lucille's voice was colder than the rain that was currently pelting her parasol and she didn't bother to adjust it to accompany Ikkime's form. In fact, if the fox Youkai saw her face even now, she would bear to witness dangerous red slits in her eyes. With the rain pouring down and the memories of the past filtering in her mind, Hernia allowed her true self to slip out for a little while. One could say that she was perhaps depressed? It was hard to say as the girl only continued to stare into the night.

"What do you want and why are you thanking me?"

Ikkime didn't open her eyes; instead she stayed silent for a second, before shrugging "What do I want? Eh, I want a lot of things, but for right now, I want to stand here with you and nothing else if that's alright. I mean I’m not gonna move even if you tell me to."

She didn't let go of her embrace either. "I'm thanking you for helping me. I'm thanking you for dealing with this extremely well, and well...I'm thanking you for letting me do this. You sure do like to question things don’t you?" She actually enjoyed the banter she had with Lucille all the time because it was...stress relieving, funny enough.

Lucille's answer to that was yet even more silence and it felt like even the rain began to pelt harder. Her eyes shifted to stare upwards, up at the taller girl currently clinging on to her. Yes, wasn't it just like this long ago? Something like this? Or was that just another fabrication? A fallacy conjured up by her mind? It was hard to tell. There were too many falsehoods for her to keep track of.

"And you don't make any sense," Lucille fired back, voice still dripping with ice and steel. "What did I help you with? What am I dealing with well?"

"You'll have to get use to that." She smiled at the girl, firing back at her. "You want my honest answer for that? You helped me find a little of my humanity and you helped me find hope in what I thought I would be completely lost in."

"You're dealing with the fucked world that the Chasers exist in; that's what you're taking well. You've probably been thrown around, seen destruction at an unreal level, survived stuff others surely wouldn't. Had things been different, had you come before, you would be an amazing Chaser."

"So you say," Lucille said with indifference. "You're certainly giving alot of praise to someone you just met a few hours ago. Tell me Ikkime-san, what would say then if I told you that I was a Youkai? That I've been one all this time? I'm curious to hear your words now."

"I do say so, in fact I give praise where praise is do, regardless of when I met someone. You've done well and that doesn't change whether I know you an hour or a hundred years. As for if you told me that? Hmmmm..." She opened her eyes and her eyes glowed purple. "I'd say, if you are a Youkai, that doesn't change my opinion. I can’t judge you or look down on the lie cause all I’ve seen is you survive. If you were a Youkai or a human or a hybrid, I can’t change what I’ve seen from you." She closed her eyes again and giggled at a thought. "You know, you're a odd person, and I can’t seem to stop liking it."

"...do you know the story about the Boy and the Creature?" Lucille asked suddenly, shifting a little in Ikkime's grip. "No, I'm sure you haven't. Even though it's supposed to be legend among Youkai, people rarely speak of it for fear of some divine wrath or something."

The girl took a pause before continuing with, "There was once a god, or a devil, or a trickster...whatever you want to call it, that suddenly dropped into the world from beyond. No one knew where this being came from but some believed it was a herald from the heavens, a star from the cosmos. This being...this creature was extremely powerful. Probably the strongest of all Youkai. Everywhere it went, nothing was left but a trail of destruction and bloodshed. No one and nothing could challenge the beast. And so it became known as the World's Strongest Creature."

Lucille paused again, making sure her words sunk into Ikkime's head. Honestly, she didn't even know herself why she was recounting the ancient tale. Maybe it was just to pass some time in the rain.

"Go on..." She didn't know the story in truth, her brother most likely but not her since she gave no char to Youkai tales. It wasn't something she exactly wanted to know anyways.

"The World's Strongest Creature ended up ravaging most of the land until it quickly got bored. What was the use of fighting if there was no one left to challenge it? And so the Creature went into hiding, filling out the rest of its eternal existence in peace. Or so, it wanted. Those who sought to kill the creature tried and failed to do so. Human and Youkai alike suffered in their foolish attempts to slay the beast. It was a time in which the world was still young."

The girl glanced up to take in the raining scenery just briefly before continuing with, "One day however, the Creature was stumbled upon by a small human child. A boy who had instantly saw something more than killing intent in the Creature. Confused of this boy's existence, the Creature became curious and allowed the boy to live. Something akin to a friendship blossomed between the two. Some even say the Creature fell in love as the boy grew to become a man, abandoned by his own kind. Do you know what happened next?"

"I'd go on a limb and say the two had a "falling out". A story such as this would not have all the greatest of endings, but continue."

"Yes, you could say that," Lucille said with a bitter chuckle. "As the boy grew older, he became tainted by the opinions of his fellow man. Soon, he too realized just what sort of monster a Youkai was, let alone the strongest one in existence. And so the boy turned man did what any human would do. He cruelly betrayed his beloved and lashed out at it. And the World's Strongest Creature...well, it ate him."

Her words were enough to bring a chilly air between the two and lightning seemed to flash along the sky followed by thunder. Perhaps cliché with all things considered, but Lucille rather fancied the change in pace. With a small grin to herself, she twirled her parasol casually.

"Of course, the Creature went away after that, never making itself known. I guess its view on humanity was perverted forever all because of one stupid boy. In any case, there's been no verification of this all powerful Youkai and it's likely the Youkai of the present can outclass anything seen in the past."

Ikkime thought for a moment. "While it's quite a story, and I'm sure at one point it was based off a true story, it is a shame that it simply writes humans in that picture you know? I have met countless horrible humans but I have also met countless horrible Youkai, for instance…" She held out her hand and showed a circle burn. "This is from a man who held me down and put a cigar directly on my hand." She showed her other hand and revealed an X marking scar on her palm. "This is from a Youkai. I attempted to help him, and he lashed out at me, said that he would rather die then get helped from a bastard Youkai like me."

She sighed. "What I'm trying to say is, a story like that only likes to show the bad side of humans, and somewhat the bad side of Youkai. I'd like to think that, maybe just maybe, that Old Youkai did find love, and that that Old Youkai found happiness. That's why they "disappeared". It does take many heart breaks and tries to find one you can love with all of you after all."

"You saw right through that one didn't you? That figures," Lucille chuckled. "I like to think that the Creature grew apathetic to it all. That would certainly be the easiest and most convenient of methods. Maybe, if it’s still alive, it just doesn't care."

The rain began to slow a little bit now though Lucille still had her parasol out and clenched. Drops were getting onto the side of her outfit but it didn't seem to bother her like it would to most.

[color=1a7b30]"I suppose what I'm trying to say is that I lied to you Ikkime-san. I was a Youkai all along. Even in the hospital, I lied about harboring more personas inside of me. A force of habit."[.color]

Ikkime held her tighter. "You want me to be honest Lucille? I figured when you survived the attack like you did, that something was off, but you wanna know something? A little secret I’ll let you in on? I don’t care nor can I care because that was in the past. If you were to judge me from my past, trust me, you would not let me hug you. If you lied, you lied. A lot of people lie on a daily basis; like I said Lucille at the beginning, I want to just stand here, that's all I want..."

"If you honestly believe that, then you're a stupid child," Lucille responded, shaking her head to her words. "But...it is refreshing to hear you say something like that. And here I thought all fox Youkai were nothing but liars of their own. To have such genuine feeling...are you sure you're not a defective?"

The memories were circling by again and Lucille blinked them away slowly. If Ikkime knew the full story, if she knew everything, then the fox Youkai wouldn't be so carefree about the current scenario. But Lucille didn't move to turn things in that direction. After all, there were still goals to achieve simply for the sake of living through them. There were still lives to lead and events to watch unfold. Before long though, the girl with the parasol found herself leaning back into Ikkime's grip.

Yes, it was just like this...

"If that's all you're gonna call me then so be it. Trust me, stupid is something I’ve become accustomed to in this day and age." She giggled at the girl’s joke. "Well I’m not quite the typically fox Youkai. Trust me, there’s many levels to what I even am, that I'm not even completely sure after all these years.”

Feeling the girl lean into her, Ikkime felt something...and well, she decided with all the things happening these past two days, and everything happening in life all at once. This was something she was going to remember, and now more then ever it appeared clear to her what she wanted at the point in time. Releasing the girl, she turned the girl around all at once and she opened her eyes. "Lucille, the fact that you even are able to bring these type of feelings out of my head…you're not gonna get away with that, you know that right?" She waited for the girl to respond before going through with what she was going to do.

"Oh?"

Everything in her instinct told Hernia to kill her. To do away with another pointless life, or to at least choose this moment to reveal the farce. To let this child fall into despair and end the pain through her hand alone. But rationally, she held off on the urge to kill and consume. For one thing, she wanted her betrayal to be known to all of the Chasers in one single motion. And another was...that same annoying scratch that itched and tickled at her better conscience, that brought more and more of these feckless memories flooding to her head.

Disgusting. It was all utterly disgusting.

"And what do you intend to do about it, Ikkime-san?" Lucille answered with a glint in her scarlet eyes.

"This Lucille-" Her eyes sparked purple, before lifting her hands up to the sides of Lucille's face. Lowering herself, she quickly closed her eyes and lowered her face towards Lucille, their lips making contact for what seemed like an eternity, which it might have been to Ikkime, before she lifted her face back.

However she lowered her face quickly again and broke away again smiling."Yeah that, that for sure..."

Lucille's own reaction to the kiss was one she had practiced time and again with other foolish "lovers". The girl's eyes narrowed as she gently leaned in closer to the kiss, keeping her fangs retracted and away. She held on until Ikkime was the first to break away, all smiles about it. Well, even lies had to feel nice.

"Hmm, that's not bad for a fox," Lucille said with a low voice, the parasol momentarily forgotten as rain slicked both of their heads directly now.

"Oh it wasn't eh? Good..." She took away the parasol and put it gently on the ground, before leaning down to kiss her again, the rain hitting them and falling between them. Ikkime lowered her hand to Lucille's back and pulled her closer. Pulling away, she actually did that half because it suddenly felt really cold, and because well the obvious reasons. "You gonna talk the talk?"

With every word that seeped out of Ikkime's mouth, the stronger the desire to see her bleeding and dead grew. Lucille gripped tightly with barely present claws, digging a little too harshly as she held on for the second course. She restrained herself only by assuring that greater suffering would yield itself if she waited further.

And then there was Mizura. How had she gone from being contracted to him to making out with his kid sister? Truly, the divine were laughing at her irony even now.

"Perhaps. That all depends on how much those pretty words of yours really mean," Lucille flashed back.

Ikkime looked at the girl, inspecting her face. "I truly do mean it Lucille. I said I’d make sure you'd make it out of all of this, and now I want you to make out and be around after everything, I figure I’ve seen enough of this city; I can always get to see your side of the world," she joked and kissed her quickly, lifting her head again. That was becoming more and more normal as she did it, and she couldn't figure out if that was a good or a bad thing.

"Yes, you said that already. It's starting to get preachy at this point," Lucille said in a bored manner before embracing the kiss again. Likewise, the more she did it, the less her urge to kill Ikkime outright rose while the need to see her suffer only increased. And that would only happen if she played along.

But was she lying once more? She didn't even know herself nor did she care to. The past was buried and gone, along with her. Old, powerful, impossible her.

"You realize that everyone can see us out here, right? And that we're getting soaked to the bone? Why don't we move inside to warm ourselves up?" Lucille said with a low chuckle, moving ever closer to the fox Youkai. "Hmm, if this is going to be a thing now, I'll need to teach you some new tricks. A leash will look just nice on you~"

Ikkime laughed. "A little public show never hurt anyone, but you're right about getting in for some warmth, and I guess a new change of clothes wouldn't be all bad either." At the mention of leashes, Ikkime grinned. "Oh trust me, hand cuffs on you would be much more fun." She kissed her again before letting go and moving to the door and stopping.

"Just don't mention me being a Youkai. Otherwise, I'll have to eviscerate you~," Lucille warned sweetly, stopping when Ikkime did.

"You know Lucille, I love you..." She turned and kissed the girl once more, before going back into the shop.

"I'm sure you do," Hernia thought to herself, pausing just once before following the girl inside. Well, things were certainly developing now weren't they? Time to see how Mizura would handle this.

Jun ended her deep thinking and began to look around the music store's selection, there wasn't anything classical she could listen to while the drama outside, she sighed, she was hoping that the team that saved her life was gonna be a little more light hearted and not drama filled.

Jun sighed once again leaning on a rack of music cds, she looked up to the ceiling wondering what the vampire and human were doing up stairs for a very long time, many thoughts filled Jun's head.

Most of them erotic, but then she came to the thought of the vampire feeding on the human, it seemed more likely in her mind, but the thought of a lesbian vampire in mid coitus with a human reminded Jun of this country's comics.

On the next evening, at the Red Cloud Music Store...

The rain had subsided sometime during the day and the evening sky was paint by a beautiful shade of reddish orange over the gray clouds that still lingered on the horizon. It was like a sign to the Chasers, that despite all the hardships they endured, life still goes on and the world never ceases to present us with these small wonders.

Even Chikage was feeling quite melancholic as she brought her herself from the darkness where she spent the daylight hours "Why don't you all take a time from this?" she asked the Chasers as they were gathered, thinking of what to do next "There's nothing you can do right now. And the eclipse will happen in two weeks from now. The best you can do is relax and get your strength back." She retrieved a few tickets from within a drawer and gave them to Shiina "There's enough to everyone, I guess you agree with me too don't you?"

After that Chikage left the Chasers alone to decide on their fate and gestured to Mizura to follow her "It's their matter now, Mizura. We can't get involved anymore. Plus, we have our own job too..." and they disappeared within the shadows, off to god-knows-where.

Two weeks later, back to the Crimson Sky...

A cold wind blew through the quasi-desert streets bellow the concrete ramparts formed by the many skyscrapers that dot the landscape of the Crimson Sky version of the City. As the Chasers gazed at the blood red moon, the silhouette of darkness from the Eclipse started to take over it. From the place they were standing it was possible for them to see the grounds where the ceremony would take place.

Suddenly, the wind died down and a voice echoed as if coming from the very air around them...



When they finally found the place the voice was coming from, they noticed it was from the sky itself, or better yet, from the moon the hung over their heads. And from the very same moon emerged a human looking being, whose appearance was difficult to classify between angelic, demonic, both or neither. Peering at the Chasers from his throne high in the sky, it said...



With a wave of his hand a deluge of red assaulted the world.

The time of judgment had finally come, and now the fate of both worlds was up for the Chasers. The final step of their journey had finally been taken, but where it will lead to?

"You have adapted quite well, I must say I am surprised." A voice said gleefully.

It was here again. The vague presence that appeared at the edge of consciousness just when he was about to go to sleep.

"I hadn't expected you to so easily throw yourself into the darkness." It said.

The presence moved to the side a little, revealing a dead body. There was no blood, and the person seemed to be rich judging by his clothes.

"What is a single drop of darkness to the abyss that spawned it?" He replied.

Again, the presence smiled.

"And what of your victim? Do you have no regrets?" The voice questioned.

"If a beast slays another, it's no longer a brutality is it not?" He said.

"Very well, I'll concede the point." The voice finally said. "But be wary, the next time we meet will most definitely be the last."

---

He snapped awake again.

"Again?" He said to no one in particular.

Like two weeks beforehand, he'd had a dream which he couldn't remember that felt important somehow. Just like that day, he planted his feet and stretched his body as best as he could. He stepped on something squishy, and out came a depressing one-liner.

"What is sadness to the abyss of hopelessness and despair?"

He'd learned to ignore those by now, and he just put the blobfish in his mouth as usual. Then he looked up and he noticed he was in a cage.

"Oh yeah, I forgot about that." He said.

When he'd arrived at the mansion he'd met some people and since they didn't know what to really do with him, they put him in a cage. It was sort of fine considering the cage was pretty big, and also he found out how to flip it over so he could go wherever he really wanted to. In fact, today he'd managed to climb the stairs and get onto the roof.

He looked up at the Crimson Sky now, red as always. Then suddenly, a voice rang out and a someone came out of the moon. He waved his hand, and a large wave of red rippled along the sky. Eventually it would reach the ground but he had enough time.

"I call upon the First Despair, give me strength to do what needs to be done." He said.
"I call upon the First Despair, give me strength to do what needs to be done." His blobfish said with him.

His blobfish disappeared and he found himself growing. His growth proved too much for his confines and the cage broke but he continued to increase in size until he was about as big as a normal house would be. This was Lacertes, his first form but not exactly the weakest. He wasn't sure why he had to chant to turn into his three major forms but it didn't matter so much for him.

His speaking was sort of limited so he wasted no time. With a flap of his wings, he was in the air. He flapped harder, building up speed and started to fly towards the moon.